View full sizeUrban Airship CEO Scott Kveton says his company's growth is emblematic of the renaissance in Portland startups: "It just is a whole bunch of hard work that's happened over the past five or six years, emerging from the dot-com crater."Motoya Nakamura/The Oregonian

Is there an echo in here?

Another entrepreneurial Portland company has landed major venture capital backing -- the third such announcement in just four weeks.

This time it's Urban Airship, whose software enables "push" notification in smartphone apps. The company said this morning it will use $25 million in new backing, led by the Silicon Valley firm August Capital, to significantly expand its hiring and growth plans.

"Now it's a question of accelerating and grabbing as much of the market as we can," said Scott Kveton, Urban Airship's co-founder and chief executive.

All are among the biggest investments in Oregon tech companies since the dot-com bust. Coming in rapid succession, they suggest a possible inflection point in the history of the Silicon Forest -- a sharp uptick in the prospects of some of the Portland area's most promising young companies.

These investments don't represent overnight success, Kveton said, but are the result of "a whole bunch of hard work that's happened over the past five or six years, emerging from the dot-com crater."

Founded in 2009, Urban Airship got in on the ground floor of the mobile software revolution. The company recognized early that software developers wanted to reach out to the people using mobile games, news sites and online stores.

Push notifications send alerts to smartphone users when, for example, a favorite football team scores. Urban Airship later added location-aware technology so its clients can send notifications when a phone is near a predetermined spot -- perhaps a pharmacy where a patient has a prescription awaiting pickup.

Originally conceived as an aid to app developers, Urban Airship repositioned itself last year to focus on marketers seeking ways to reach potential customers. Smartphones are becoming an essential component of our personal identities, Kveton said, and retailers, entertainment companies and others see a big opportunity to use that technology to connect with consumers.

"You have this phone," Kveton said, "and it's who you are, it's where you are."

Urban Airship has lined up an array of blue-chip online clients, from Netflix to TMZ. Altogether, it's now raised nearly $47 million in venture backing.

The company won't disclose its revenues, but says they increased 400 percent last year. Its workforce doubled in 2012, to nearly 120, and Kveton said he expects employment to double again this year.

Veteran Portland entrepreneur Pete Grillo, currently chief executive of a downtown tech company called Iterasi, was an early adviser to Urban Airship and remains on its board. He said the company invested heavily in establishing its technology to accommodate future growth, and that foresight is paying dividends in winning new clients and investors.

"That was the story we took to customers, and customers acknowledged that and said we had the right vision," Grillo said. "Now we've got another form of validation."

While a substantial investment round represents a vote of confidence -- and brings with it credibility in the broader tech community -- it is by no means a guarantee of success. Emerging technology markets are fiercely competitive and always changing; even experienced investors have a hard time picking winners and losers.

The investments in Urban Airship, Janrain and Puppet nonetheless represent a notable economic boost. The money from out-of-state backers will be used primarily to hire new workers, most of them in Oregon.

Portland's young tech companies are still at least a few years away from the big time, Grillo said. But he said these three have set themselves up nicely.

If they maintain their growth rates, their businesses could command substantial premiums from larger buyers. Or they might hold their own public stock offering (no Oregon tech company has held an IPO since 2004.)

Regardless, Grillo said the city is spawning a generation of experienced engineers and entrepreneurs with the financial wherewithal to pursue their own dreams.